Congress Wants To Work With Trump On North Korean Sanctions, And Strategy

A bipartisan pair of senators have introduced a bill to force the Trump administration to impose tougher sanctions against North Korea and provide Congress with a strategy to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

“The administration has taken positive steps in recent weeks to impose additional sanctions and working with governments to diplomatically isolate this heinous regime.” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) said in a statement Tuesday. “Sen. [Ed] Markey and I are going to continue working in a bipartisan manner to give nations and companies a clear choice – do business with the United States or do business with North Korea.”

Gardner and Markey (D-Mass.) are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of the Senate Foreign Relation’s subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and international cybersecurity.

The bill, which they’ve dubbed the Leverage to Enhance Effective Diplomacy Act of 2017, comes as the Trump administration appeared to muddy the waters on its diplomatic strategy after President Trump called out Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.